People post wish lists to the Internet not simply because they want the stuff, but because they define themselves by the things they desire. If these wish lists survive as web ephemera, they will bear witness to flash-in-the-pan cultural memes. The website Daypop.com tracks the most desired items on current Amazon.com wish lists. These are mostly predictable of-the-moment must-havesthe Star Wars trilogy on DVD, the Jon Stewart bookthings that let people know that you, the wish lister, keep your cool quotient up.

Or, alternately, that you're quirkier than the average wish lister. These are the things that are extensions of your personality, and if someone should buy them for you, they're in essence saying, "You're OK. I like you, and I approve of your wish." It's the gifter's chance to be your Fairy Godmother. There are so many wish list-oriented websites trying to cash in on this notion that nearly any gift-giving phrasethethingsiwant, alliwantforchristmas, wishlist, find gift, smallwishes, alittlebirdhas been turned into a URL.

This is handy during the holiday season, when trying to figure out a present for, say, Uncle Roy From Eight States Away turns into a Sisyphean nightmare in which socks and ties roll down from piled-high department store sales tables. But not everyone is up on the wish list culture, and Uncle Roy is often the last to join an Internet craze. So what to get for those people who wish without a list?